NPR: It’s Not Over: Days After Election, These Races Are Still Undecided

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams addresses supporters at an election watch party on Tuesday. Abrams has not conceded to her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, contending there are thousands of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

It’s two days after the midterm elections, and there are still a few things unknown about the outcome. There are several House races and a handful of Senate seats still up in the air, along with two high-profile governors’ races in Georgia and Florida.

Some may be decided shortly, but a few may not be called until next week or later. Democrats have picked up 30 House seats, more than enough to recapture control of that chamber. But there are still about a dozen undecided, competitive House races held by Republicans, and Democrats lead in six. They are listed below (results as of 1:45 p.m. ET Thursday):

Maine’s 2nd District race, profiled here, has one of the oddest potential outcomes — the Republican incumbent is leading, but a newly implemented way the state counts votes very well could hand the race to the Democratic challenger.

Republican Bruce Poliquin currently leads Democrat Jared Golden by 921 votes with 46 percent of the vote. But there were also two independents in the race, Tiffany Bond and Will Hoar. Under Maine’s unique ranked-choice voting law, if no candidate receives a majority — that is 50 percent plus one of the vote — the Maine secretary of state conducts a recount.

The last-place finisher in the contest, who appears to be Hoar, will be eliminated. The second choice his voters listed on their ballots will be awarded to the respective candidates. And if that still doesn’t produce a majority winner, then the third-place finisher is eliminated and the process repeats.

Golden has said he will abide by the final results, but Poliquin didn’t answer a question put to him during a debate last month about whether he would. It’s possible he could decide to file a court suit to contest the process. So it may be a while before we know who will represent the voters of the largest congressional district geographically east of the Mississippi.

The uncalled governors’ races are in Florida and Georgia.

In Georgia, Republican Brian Kemp holds a narrow lead over Stacey Abrams. Kemp has declared victory, but Abrams has not conceded, contending there are thousands of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

In Florida, The Associated Presshas called the race for Republican Ron DeSantis over Democrat Andrew Gillum. While Gillum has conceded, the race is tightening and is in the range to trigger a recount. The margin is now less than 0.5 percentage points.

Republican Martha McSally speaks at a rally for President Trump on Oct. 19 in Mesa, Ariz. McSally is in a tight Senate race with Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.Ralph Freso/Getty Images

The same holds true for Florida’s U.S. Senate race, where Republican Rick Scott has a narrow lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. That race’s margin is currently just 0.2 percentage points.

The Arizona Senate race is also up in the air. There, Republican Martha McSally has a lead of some 15,000 votes over Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, but some 600,000 mail-in ballots have yet to be counted, a process that could take a week or more to complete.

Finally, the special election for a Senate seat in Mississippi goes to an automatic runoff between the top two finishers, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the position, and Democrat Mike Espy. That will take place on Nov. 27.

It's two days after the midterm elections, and there are still a few things unknown about the outcome. There are several House races and a handful of Senate seats still up in the air, along with two high-profile governors' races in Georgia and Florida.

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